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Environmental Conservation

Tree seedlings distribution to beneficiaries to plant in their respective farms.

Pasture establishment by Munyuni self help group.

Pasture establishment by Munyuni self help group.

All the area near and around the sand dam is green.

Terracing helps to hold water and retain moisture content in the soil and also prevents erosion.

Terracing retains water under the soil hence supports tree growing and nurturing.

The natural environment is very fragile and often gets disturbed by unending human activities. Everything that we, humans, try to do, the environment always ends up hurting, regardless of our intentions. Be it creating land for cultivation, schools, hospitals and other amenities, the environment suffers. We cut down trees and pave way for massive soil erosion. Our activities lead to emission of harmful gases to the atmosphere on a daily basis. Indeed, it is our constant pollution of the environment and nature that has led to unprecedent global warming that has become a challenge for this and future generations and threatens to change our climatic conditions and life as we know it.

At ASDF however, we try to remedy this. Our projects while helping better the lives of our beneficiaries, have an environmental protection angle to them. Sand dams hold water and sand behind them, preventing massive soil erosion in the rivers which expand every rainy season. It is in our policy to have two terraces dug on either sige of the river channel where the dam is situated. This prevents silt from flowing into the dam also, by extension, prevents soil erosion from the dam sides into the river while also holding water and storing it beneath the sand.

Terracing is one of the things that we train farmers on and encourage. Every farmer is urged to dig terraces on their farms. Self help groups also run tree nurseries. The seedlings are shared among the members and planted at their farms. In our many training sessions with the groups, we teach them on the right ways to plant trees and maintain them from pests diseases. These two activities help a lot in environmental conservation. To date, 352,330 metres of terraces have been dug and 1,615,994 seedlings planted.

Pasture establishment has been adopted as a land reclamation project in several groups. Leguminous grass is planted on a part of the land that has been rendered void of vegetation cover by years of overgrazing and subsequent massive soil erosion. Once the grass grows, it puts an end to erosion and restores the fertile humus layer of soil which had been eroded. After several seasons, the land becomes arable once again and cultivation is now possible. The grass is harvested and fed to cattle and other livestock.